The first eight months or so of being a homeowner are filled
with repairs, remodels and upgrades needed to make the house into a
home. There are few options available to homeowners when they begin
looking for reliable people to take on all of these tasks.
Traditional sources, including online research and fumbling through
the Yellow Pages, don't guarantee good, quality work.

This is where Verified Consumer Reports comes in. It's an annual
publication based out of St. Louis, Mo., and it will be released
throughout the greater Phoenix metropolitan area in July. The
publishers of Verified Consumer Reports said they are dedicated to
easing the process of finding companies capable of tackling home
improvement projects.

"Arizona is such a great market with thousands of new homeowners
coming in providing a great opportunity for our product," said Tony
White, co-founder and president of Verified Consumer Reports.

He said he is bringing with him the knowledge of launching and
managing various publications. White said he took what he learned
from those publications and improved upon them, along with
co-founder and Vice President Beth DeVoto, to create Verified
Consumer Reports. The publication contains 50 to 60 categories
ranging from pool maintenance to air ducts, each with up to four
local businesses that have been screened and verified by the
publication to be providing quality services.

White stresses that there are a lot of scams that have taken
place in the Arizona market, which sets the venue for Verified
Consumer Reports to go in and clean out the bad business
providers.

"There are up to four different choices of people in your area
that are licensed, that carry the workman's comp insurance and that
you can trust," he said, adding that what sets his publication
apart is the strenuous screening process businesses have to go
through in order to be included.

DeVoto and White said they research every potential business and
survey each of their clients through an independent auditing firm
to find out who has the highest rate of customer satisfaction, and
then only the best make it into the annual issue.

"Their own customers have let us know that yes we used them, yes
we liked them, yes we would use them again or refer them to our
friends," DeVoto said, adding that no business goes unchecked and
it's the personal recommendation from real people that give
homeowners a sense of security with the product.

"We don't bombard the homeowners with a bunch of
advertisements," White said. "You won't see any full-page, flashy
displays. We want this to be viewed by the homeowners as a quality
resource with factual information."